v >> david: the war on women. the republicans say there is no such thing. it is just a slanderous catch catch-phrase. house speaker john boehner, for instance, is outraged just listen to him last april talking about the impending fight over women's health. >> this is a war on women entirely created by my colleagues across the aisle for political gain. >> eliot: you can't blame the man. no one likes to be told that they're waging hostilities against half the population, some might say the better half. if republicans don't want us to think that there is a war why oh why do they keep attacking. in mississippi where the state's only remaining abortion clinic was barely allowed to stay open today. a federal judge extended a temporary order that keeps open the jackson women's health

organization. mississippi said that the abortion providers must have certain requirement that they know cannot be done. just listen to mississippi representatives, lester carpenter as he bragged about the law to a g.o.p. meeting in alcorn county. this is the attitude about the damage that it might do to women. >> and of course there you have% the other side. well the poor pitiful woman that can't afford to go out of the state are just gonna start doing them at home with a coat hanger. >> that's his answer. you have to start somewhere. he has decided to start not

with education not with better prenatal care. not with job opportunities that could make having children more affordableaffordable, he starts with the health and maybe the life of a woman. not just in mississippi but only other states that only have one abortion clinic. three of those states are dominated by g.o.p. governors and legislature. when you look at this record. it sure seems like a war on women. it's the right way to describe it. that's my view.

>> david: the cover story in the atlantic this month is why women still can't have it all. more than a million have read it and thousands more have comment

on it. the message comes from a seeming super woman. the author is politics and international affairs professor at princeton university who spent two years as the director of political planning at the state department, the first woman to every hold that position, and she is the mother of two teenaged sons. she writes, i still strongly believe that women can have it all, and that men can too i'm glad to hear it. i believe that we can have it all at the same time but not today. not with the way america's economy and society are currently structured. anne-marie slaughter why not. you're an icon to woman proving that you can have it all what have you concluded. >> i have proven that i could have it all because i had the flexibility to run my own time. as long as i had that, i could have kids, have a career, work

as hard as i wanted. as soon as i got into a job when i didn't have that kind of flexibility, i realized that it was not work for teenage kids. i did it for two years but most women do not have what i havish to do what i have done, flexibility. >> eliot: the job that required this epiphany was the two years as director of policy planning, reporting to the secretary of state. you said it just doesn't work any more. >> i made it work for two years. i have to make clear it's a that level you can't change the job. secretary clinton cannot say to the president of egypt hold it, we have to go home. i did it for two years and then stopped, even though i expected to go on. >> eliot: this article elicited enormous response. a lot of positive, some critical. you made an important point.

it was when you got to the pinnacle it was suddenly not possible to juggle all the pieces. this is a high-end problem when you get to be ceo or senior at the state department. most folks you think still can juggle this. >> i disagree. the problem is i always controlled my own time. i'm a professor. for many women they experience early on what i experienced in washington. they work on a boss' time with very little flexibility about where and how they can get their work done. they have to be in the office, and they have to--the person who stays the longest is deemed the most professionally committed. they drop out or step out, then they're no longer in the pool for leadership positions. that's why we don't see the numbers of women. >> eliot: you discuss in the article various ways to change the economy. face time. you tell the story of the former director of the white house to

leave the jacket and the light on to make it look like he's still there even when he's not. that does not work with the agenda that you must have as a mom, kids, and the job career. >> i think we should be judging people by results the output, not how many hours they put in. a lot of women i know are incredibly efficient. they can get done in six hours what many people can get done in 12, and go home and then be with their kids. but then' personized. >> eliot: you were about to say what takes men 12 hours to do. i was not going to quibble, and you give the example of the man who trains for the marathon. and everyone says look how tough and rigorous he is and the woman goes home to the kids and no one says anything. are we making progress. >> we are making progress in that domain. we're making progress in part because men who are married to

talented women who have kids, are themselves seeing the need for this kind of cultural change. but i think we need to call people out on it where people say, look, we're committed. we want to be gender neutral. we want to make it possible for women to stay in the pool. women have to say okay, this is what we need, and bosses, often still men and women say okay, we'll give this a try. >> eliot: this is a vicious circle. you had a boss who was appreciative of this, and it ultimately became very difficult, she as you point out interestingly in the article would get in the office late enough so people would not feel pressured to get there by 6:00, and she would go only so people didn't feel pressured to stay until 10:00. >> not many people do as well as hillary clinton did at her job. many should imitate her. >> eliot: i know your husband andy. he's picked up an done what many

husbands talk about and don't do he has done his 50%. how do you change that dynamic. >> again he's flexible. i'm flexible. he's a full time professor. i'm a full time professor. he has a full-time job. but he knows that for us to have our careers and the life we want he has to pitch in. i think there are lots of men willing to do that, but then they pay a career penalty. they're frightened if they do that then they won't make it. >> eliot: i love this. let me ask you this question. i'm sure you've been asked it a thousand times. the article, you elicited an enormous response. some of it very affirmative. but some critical. what has been the most trenching criticism that you have taken to the heart. >> the criticism that i have taken to the heart not to use the phrase "not having it all." to women in my generation means having everything of men.

in this generation it sounds like having perfection in a world where you can't have it. i would say having better choices and fair choices. >> eliot: that's hugely important distinction. nobody has it all. those who think they do